What can we do to fight the GOP attack on voting rights?

June 3, 2021 10:42 AM

As we all know, the GOP has been attacking voting rights in individual states across the country, even trying to allow judges to overturn election results in Texas. Beyond calling our senators, I'm curious if people can suggest concrete actions we can do as individual citizens to fight this, particularly if we don't live in the states affected. Happy to learn about potential places to donate, though hopefully there are other things in addition to that!
posted by johnasdf to Law & Government (4 answers total)

Fair Fight helped get Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock elected in Georgia, a state that is historically a Republican stronghold. It was started by Stacey Abrams after former Sec't of State Brian Kemp suppressed voter rolls in order to win himself the governorship in 2018.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 11:44 AM on June 3, 2021 [6 favorites]

Agree with Fair Fight. Also Democracy Docket. This is the advocacy group that supports attorney Marc Elias, who has been the legal superstar fighting the bullshit from the last election as well as the current voting rights attacks. League of Women Voters has been a steadfast supporter of democracy for decades.

Aside from that: get to work NOW to register people to vote and get them to turn out. Donate to the candidates you support and work in their campaigns. And finally, run for office yourself, and get other good people to run for office. City, county, state—don’t cede ground to the crazies.
posted by Sublimity at 3:17 AM on June 4, 2021

Vote Forward has ongoing campaigns to write letters to unlikely voters -- I wrote a bunch last fall and it helped channel a little of the election angst into action.
posted by jabes at 8:12 AM on June 8, 2021

Response by poster: Hey all, these are helpful. If you have more ideas, keep them coming! I had donated to Fair Fight and Democracy Docket around the time of the Presidential election, but I might do so again given how insane things are getting. It looks like Stacey Abrams and Fair Fight Action are running a big summer push for voting rights that will involve trying to contact voters in swing states.

I was also thinking of donating to Run For Something, which focuses on running candidates in red states, Common Cause, and Indivisible, and maybe local DSA chapters in places like West Virginia, Texas, and Florida.

I wonder if people had suggestions of local races or organizations that might be worth donating towards? For example, in the original thread, someone mentioned a Secretary of State race.

I'm also wondering if people have suggestions on strategies that are not legal, but involve things like party-building or I guess more local voter registration efforts.
posted by johnasdf at 6:56 AM on June 9, 2021